Seven years ago, the Municipality of Tirana promised that the former Republic Guard area would join the Great Park of the Artificial Lake as a green space. But today the area is a large construction site.
Three 8-11-35-story buildings are expected to be built there: the National Center for Children's Culture (NCCC), the National Library, and the Nova Group tower.
The story of the transition from that promise to massive construction reveals the pattern of how public properties are alienated in Tirana: with personalized plans, selected designers, and dubious connections to powerful economic actors.
How was the promise of a park forgotten?
In October 2018, Mayor Erion Veliaj declared that the former Guard's land would be annexed to Lake Park. He excluded construction from this area and emphasized that no tower would be built there.
But two years later, in August 2020, Veliaj approved the Detailed Local Plan (PDV) TR/169 which paved the way for construction "up to 18+2 floors".
The PDV was drafted by Belgian studio XDGA and local studio iRI, who in the accompanying report recommended that the municipality build an underground parking lot at the entrance to the park, next to the “Frédéric Chopin” square. The property there – two buildings and a plot of land with an area of 1,470 m2 – was private, but, for this, they suggested that it be exchanged for land belonging to the former Guard.
The suggestion was not discussed by any public authority. On the contrary, an evaluation expert was appointed and approved by the government on September 23, 2020. All in a record time of just 28 working days!
Three months later, in December 2020, the government granted permission to build a 14-story hotel on the swapped plot. The designers of the hotel – which in 2024 was relicensed for a 35-story building – were the studios that drafted the PDV and suggested the property swap: XDGA and iRI.
Five years after the property exchange, the underground parking lot at the entrance to the park has not been built. Nor has the new axis that was supposed to connect “Ibrahim Rugova” and “Dora D'Istria” streets been completed.
The institutions' rush to exchange properties seems to have only served the builders.
Meanwhile, in addition to the two hotel projects (2020, 2024), the XDGA and iRi studios also designed the public projects of the QKKF and the new National Library in the same area. The case borders on a conflict of interest, as the urban planning of the entire area orients the projects towards a beneficiary group, without real competition.
There are no competitions, but the projects were "won"
In 2015, the government declared the former Guarda area of national importance for development under the name "Tirana Lake Park Entrance". Two gardens next to the Polytechnic University of Tirana also became part of it.
Through an international competition – the announcement of which is still kept online on the AKPT website – the government sought to design offices for the administration in the former Guardia area: Public Service Mall.
The competition was won by the proposal of the studios BuildingBuilding, UHO Architects and EGA. XDGA also participated in the competition, whose proposal was awarded second prize. The finalists were awarded about 100 thousand euros in prizes - 45 thousand for the winner.
But the project remained only on paper. Administrative offices, such as the Files Authority, were located in the former Guard area for a few years.
In contrast, for the development that came five years later with the QKKF and the new National Library, there was no such approach with an international competition. On the contrary, there were no public announcements either.
The former Ministry of Economy, Culture and Innovation (MEKI) told Citizens.al that it did not hold any competition for the concept of the QKKF project, but only a "procedure for purchasing the implementation project."
This contradicts the claim that XDGA studio makes on its official website, where it advertises the QKKF project as having been won through an “international competition”. It gave the same explanation after a request for comment from Citizens.al. Meanwhile, for the National Library, MEKI said that it “has not undertaken any procedure for the project or concept-idea”.
Thus, it remains unclear who decided that the QKKF and the Library would be built at the former Guardia, and even more so that they would be designed by the studio duo XDGA-iRi.
Since January 2025, the Library project and the land where it is intended to be built have been transferred to the Albanian Investment Corporation, which failed to arouse interest despite calls to develop it in partnership with the private sector with the incentive of the possibility of building a tower on the former German villas.
Even the Corporation did not provide information on where the library project came from and who paid for it.
The PDV proposed by XDGA, which distinguishes projects for 5-11-18-story buildings/AIC.
Ownership changes raise red flags
At the center of developments at the former Garda stand the company Dushku SA and individuals with a history of employment or collaboration with companies linked to the Balfin group of entrepreneur Samir Mane.
Dushku SA was founded in 2017 by Aida Dushku and Endrit Alikaj, former director of the Balfin group.
Initially, they named it “San Giovanni” – after the restaurant that operated in the area – and suffered for two years a negative balance sheet with a loss of around 15 thousand euros. This was followed by a series of capital assessments and reviews that they concretized in April 2019.
The four properties of the former restaurant (2/353; 2/354; 2/355; 2/18 with a total area of 1,470 m2) were registered in the name of the company Dushku SA. They were also declared as capital worth 193 million lek (about 1.5 million euros).
A year later, in July 2020, Endrit Alikaj sold the properties and shares of Dushku SA (55.8%) to Ferro Beton & Construction Co, (then owned by brothers Ilir and Kujtim Shtufi of the Nova group), for 300,000 euros – about three times less than the declared value.
Less than a week after this transaction, on July 27, 2020, XDGA and iRI studios proposed to the Tirana municipality the exchange of Dushku SA properties for land at the former Garda. Within two months, the Nova group would enjoy approval for the land exchange.
The procedure was passed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which appointed Silvana Meçaj as property appraiser. The latter also determined the parcel of the former Garda and everything was approved by the government on September 23, 2020.
Three months after this land swap, on December 28, the government approved the Nova group's permit for a 14-story hotel, which in 2024 would receive a second permit for a 35-story tower.
The project was compiled by the studio duo XDGA-iRI in what could be a record for the time it took the entrepreneurs to close all procedures from conception to obtaining the building permit: just 5 months.
Two weeks before receiving the permit, on December 7, 2020, the company Dushku SA zeroed its share capital, in other words, it gave up ownership of the land acquired from the former Garda.
In April 2021, Bers Hado, a lawyer at Balfin, replaced Aida Dushku as administrator. He was to sign the suspension of the company's activities at the end of the month.
This move on ownership and the timing of their execution suggests a structured maneuver to convert public land for private gain, with Alikaj and others as liaisons between public and private actors, where on the horizon it seems that work has long been underway to build on the former Garda.
Shadows of procedures
The documents show that ownership of one of the buildings and most of the land of the Dushku SA company was obtained through an expedited legalization procedure.
"Legalization Permit No. 12623" dated September 19, 2013 legalized the three properties 2/353; 2/354 and 2/355.
The three properties had a single-story building of 56.6 m2, 720 m2 of land, and two plots of 50 m2 each, which suggest that they also had buildings at the time of application, but that they no longer existed at the time of legalization.
At this point, Silvana Meçaj, – the expert who was engaged in 2020 by the government to evaluate the properties – incorrectly states that "the buildings are from before the 1990s" because in addition to the legalization procedure that implies the opposite, the 1994 map of the State Authority for Geospatial Information (ASIG) also shows that they may have been built later.
For the rest of the property (2/18 with 195m2 of building and 650m2 of land), the ownership certificate shows that there was a venture contract with the company Singapore Europe Real Estate (SERE). It turns out that it was signed a month after the company itself was formed, in September 2012.
A BIRN investigation links this company – initially registered with offshore beneficial owners – to the purchase of properties in Himara and Palasa, properties which were then transferred to the Balfin company for the “Green Coast” project. In the period 2016-2020, it was acquired and absorbed by companies owned by Balfin.
SERE is primarily controlled by Denis Alimehmeti and Altin Daka, the former a former employee of QTU and NEPTUN, the latter a former operational development specialist at the company Public Albania 2000, which is owned by the head of Human Resources at SPAR. QTU, NEPTUN and SPAR are part of the Balfin group.
The Balfin Group, in a response to Citizens.al, denied any involvement or interest in the area near the former Guard, implying that the persons in question acted on personal responsibility and interests.
“The Balfin Group […] has not had and does not have any connection or interest in the mentioned area. The Balfin Group employs over 4,600 people, whose private activities the company cannot have knowledge of,” said the press office of the group led by entrepreneur Samir Mane.
Of course, the involvement of these individuals and companies does not necessarily prove the involvement of the Balfin group, but the picture and course of developments leaves questions about informal connections and the benefits that may have come through actors with "privileged access" to public decision-making and planning procedures.
From all this history, which shows that the former Guard was developed with closed procedures, lobbying interests, preferential selection of projects and urban planning, we understand that Tirana is developed on bargaining and not really on public needs. / Erblin Vukaj, Citizens
